Clever combinations of two or more climbers give the gardener real creative scope. You can create interesting interplays of colour and contrasts of foliage; you can extend the flowering season and mask die-back; or cover the bare legs of your climbing roses. All this can be achieved with perennial climbers, but showy annuals are also useful. Vigorous plants such as Cobaea scandens (the cup and saucer plant), Ipomoea lobata (Spanish flag), sweet peas and the hyacinth bean (Lablab) are easy to grow from seed if you can't find them in the garden centre.

The problem with mixing climbers is how to satisfy their different pruning needs. Using an annual overcomes this, as does using plants that either die down in winter, such as Humulus lupulus (hop), or plants that can be pruned almost to the ground in winter, such as Clematis viticella. Here are some great combinations to try in your garden:

How to grow Plant in sun or light shade. Avoid hot, dry conditions, which will give the hop a scorched look. Pruning is easy: during winter, cut the hop to the ground and the clematis down to strong buds about 40cm above the ground.

Good for succession: the early pink rose gives way to the late-summer yellows, oranges and reds of Ipomoea lobata (Spanish flag), which goes well with rudbeckias, crocosmias and Hemerocallis 'Frans Hals'.

How to grow Plant in full sun in any reasonable soil. During winter, pull out the dead ipomoea shoots and prune the rose to a framework, removing the oldest shoots every two to three years.

The young vine leaves mature to deep bronzed-purple between spring and mid-autumn, providing the perfect foil for yellow, scented roses that come in flushes throughout the season. Any rose leaves marked with blackspot are masked by the large vine leaves.

How to grow Both like fertile soil in full sun. Pruning these lovers involves some disentangling. Prune during winter, cutting back all new growth on the vine to an established framework and reduce rose shoots by two-thirds.

The rose is scented and flowers right through summer and autumn, while the clematis adds its highlights from mid- to late summer.

How to grow In fertile soil in full sun or light shade. 'Zépherine Drouhin' has no thorns, which makes pruning a less painful affair. Prune the rose in late winter by reducing thin and damaged shoots back to strong buds, and tie in any strong shoots to extend the framework. The clematis pruning is easy: in winter, cut all shoots back to a strong bud about 30cm above the ground. Clematis start shooting early in the year, so don't leave pruning too late.

The wisteria's flowering season is relatively short, but its foliage is good right through until autumn and it seems a waste not to make the most of it, which is where 'Lasurstern' comes into its own, because, after its strong, early-season show, it puts out a second, albeit lesser, flush of flowers. Try growing your wisteria as a standard (ie, stand-alone plant) rather than against a wall for this combination.

How to grow In full sun in fertile soil, and keep well watered. This is not the simplest combination to look after: when planting a new wisteria, gain control early on by establishing an open framework of stems. From then on cut all side shoots back to about 20cm in August and reduce that and any new growth back to two buds in February. This will mean untangling some of the clematis shoots in August and tying them back to the wisteria framework. The clematis flowers on side shoots, so you'll still get flowers if you do no pruning but you will have to thin out the stems every other year to stop it becoming a messy tangle. Well-nourished soil is just as important as pruning for good clematis flowering.